Deuteronomy 6:13-19 (NIV):

13 Fear the Lord your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name. 14 Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you; 15 for the Lord your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land. 16 Do not put the Lord your God to the test as you did at Massah. 17 Be sure to keep the commands of the Lord your God and the stipulations and decrees he has given you. 18 Do what is right and good in the Lord’s sight, so that it may go well with you and you may go in and take over the good land the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors, 19 thrusting out all your enemies before you, as the Lord said.

The LORD used Deut 6:13 to respond to the devil’s temptation concerning worship and it says we should fear the LORD, serve him only and take our oaths in his name. This means it is important to understand the fear of the LORD as it is the beginning of wisdom-when we fear the LORD we are able to understand how to confront the challenges and attacks in our lives (Prov. 9:10).We are able to live in the reality of worship.

Secondly we serve only our God hence nothing else should come before Him in our lives-do you serve your family/friends/spouse above your service to the LORD? This will serve as an entry point for how the devil will choose to tempt you if you do-it is akin to leaving the door open for the enemy to come in because when we serve the LORD first, everything else falls into place.

Worship is service which is why Jesus said worship the LORD your God and serve Him only.

And the LORD Himself decreed Him only should we serve:

Exodus 34:14 (NIV):

14 Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

And when we do this we are able to have a covenant walk with the LORD. The dictionary describes an oath as a solemn promise invoking a divine witness, regarding one’s future action or behavior-hence when we fear the LORD and gain wisdom through Him, we learn how to serve Him alone and how to stand on promises made only in His name. This means whatever the devil tells you stands as a lie as it falls before the LORD’s promise as you are in a covenant walk with Him.

The proceeding passages are also interesting as they expand on what it means to worship the LORD. It means we do not follow other gods-those of your friends, family, colleagues-no. We follow only the LORD our God-hence we do not follow other gods in worshipping music, sexual immorality, profanity and so on.

And this is because as the LORD explains, He is a Jealous God and His anger will burn against you-this means that the LORD will not be pleased with you:

Hebrews 10:38 (NIV):

38 And,

“But my righteous one will live by faith.

And I take no pleasure

in the one who shrinks back.”

Hence when we step away from serving God, we step away from living in faith. And this means we reject the nature of God. The Word also says He will destroy you from the face of the land because this is consequence faced when we fail to serve God-we suffer the penalty of our decision to step away from His Nature.

Hence you need to understand the cost of your decision-whether you choose to worship God alone so you may have life, or to reject the nature of God and reap the consequences of sin:

Deuteronomy 30:19 (NIV):

19 This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live

The importance of this is to understand the spiritual implication of your choices-Satan is a demon and he seeks to destroy the children of God-hence when we choose to serve him through music, money, profanity-we choose destruction by default. But when we reject the devil, we choose God and the devil flees (James 4:7).

To be able to possess the promise, we must stand on the Word of God and apply His instructions in our lives-this means no shortcuts, no cunning actions, no deception-follow the path of God and do what is right and good in His sight so you may reap the reward of your actions.

In the wilderness your faith will get tested when you have no visible signs of relief but the wilderness experience of our LORD serves to illustrate how the Word follows you everywhere and when applied appropriately defeats the devil’s schemes.

So surround yourself with the Word.